Fortune & Glory

Firearms

Guns are not strangers to fantasy. The earliest authors of fantasy and weird fiction often included guns in their stories. Heroes like Burroughs’s John Carter or Howard’s Solomon Kane carried pistols alongside their swords, and its hard to imaginea pirate ship without cannons blazing. These authors likely included guns because they are exciting, but also because the guns they chose were primitive ones – relatively unpredictable weapons, prone to misfire and malfunction. This made firearms excellent storytelling devices.

The section presents an anachronistic collection of hand held black powder weapons. Most of them are single shot muzzle – loaders with highly inefficient triggering mechanisms-traditional sword and sorcery firearms. There are 5 choices for firearm’s in a campaign. (No Guns, Very Rare Guns, Emerging Guns, Commonplace Guns, and Guns Everywhere).

The Skull & Shackles Campaign is based on the initial phase of Emerging Guns – Firearms become more common. They are mass-produced by small guilds, lone gunsmiths, dwarven clans, or maybe even a nation or two—the secret is slipping out, and the occasional rare adventurer uses guns. Early firearms are available, but are relatively rare. Advanced firearms may exist, but only as rare and wondrous items—the stuff of high-level treasure troves.

Rules
For the playtest, the Firearms will fall under the Martial Weapons(Special Weapons sub type) in the DND Playtest Equipment section.

Exploding Dice- When you roll the maximum result on a die, reroll the damage and add that to the total (this includes the addtl damage from a critical hit). If the result of the second die roll is also the maximum, repeat.

Concentration and loading a weapon – You may be required to make a concentration check when reloading a weapon if an attack or environmental phenomena would cause a negative impact. This would require a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. (Early Firearms) – Early firearms are muzzle-loaded, requiring bullets or pellets and black powder to be rammed down the muzzle. If an early firearm has multiple barrels, each barrel must be loaded separately. It is a standard action to load each barrel of a one-handed early firearm and a full-round action to load each barrel of a two-handed early firearm. It takes three full-round actions by one person to load a siege firearm. This can be reduced to two full-round actions if more than one person is loading a siege firearm.

Misfire: When a natural 1 is rolled the weapon has “misfired” and gains the “broken” conditions. The broken condition results in any further attacks used with the weapon to roll disadvantage until the weapon is fixed (repair Int 15; or make whole spell). When a natural 1 is rolled immediately roll 1d6 (1-4 misfire; 5-6 weapon explodes) When a gun explodes, pick one corner of your square—the explosion creates a burst from that point of origin. Any creature within this burst (including the firearm’s wielder) takes damage as if it had been hit by the weapon—a DC 12 Reflex save halves this damage

Ammunition: Firearms takes either black powder and shot (either bullets or pellets) Unlike other types of ammunition, firearm ammunition is destroyed when it is used, and has no chance of being retrieved on a miss. Firearm ammunition cannot be treated with poison. Firearms, Black Powder, and Water: Black powder becomes useless when exposed to water, but powder horns and cartridges protect black powder from exposure. You cannot normally load an early firearm underwater or fire any firearm underwater without magical aid.

Black powder is the key explosive component within a firearm that enables it to function, but in larger amounts this alchemical material can be quite destructive on its own as well. A single dose of black powder is enough to power a single shot from most one-handed and two-handed firearms, while 10 doses are required to fire a cannon. Black powder is often stored and transported in kegs (which hold 100 doses), but in this quantity the powder itself becomes dangerous. Exposure to fire, electricity, or a misfire explosion causes black powder to explode—a single keg that explodes in this manner deals 5d6 points of fire damage to anyone within a 20-foot burst (DC 15 Reflex half ). Storing black powder in a powder horn protects the powder from explosion

Misc – Firearms can be fired, like crossbows, from prone position. A two handed firearms can be fired one handed while suffering disadvantage. A buckler can be worn while firing a two handed firearm.

Scatter Weapon Quality: A weapon with the scatter weapon quality can shoot two different types of ammunition. It can fire normal bullets that target one creature, or it can make a scattering shot, attacking all creatures within a cone. Cannons with the scatter weapon quality only fire grapeshot, unless their descriptions state otherwise. When a scatter weapon attacks all creatures within a cone, it makes a separate attack roll against each creature within the cone. Each attack roll takes a –2 penalty, and its attack damage cannot be modified by precision damage or damage-increasing feats. Effects that grant concealment, such as fog or smoke, or the blur, invisibility, or mirror image spells, do not foil a scatter attack. If any of the attack rolls threaten a critical, confirm the critical for that attack roll alone. A firearm that makes a scatter shot misfires only if all of the attack rolls made misfire. If a scatter weapon explodes on a misfire, it deals triple its damage to all creatures within the misfire radius.

One handed ranged weapons

Pistol – The single-shot pistol is one of the most common firearms, although in most campaigns it is still rare enough to be an object of envy or curiosity to most.
A pistol uses either a bullet and a singe dose of black powder
Cost: 1000 gp, Damage: 1d8, Range: 20ft, Capacity: 1, Lbs.: 4

Double Barrel Pistol – This pistol has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be fired independently as a separate action, or both can be shot at once with the same action.
If both barrels are shot at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the pistol becomes wildly inaccurate, imparting disadvantage.
Cost: 1750 gp, Damage: 1d8, Range: 20ft, Capacity: 2, Lbs.: 5

Pistol, Dragon – Like a miniature blunderbuss, the dragon pistol fires pellets or a bullet from its flared barrel. The dragon pistol fires in a 15-foot cone when firing pellets, and has a 10-foot range increment when firing a bullet. For ammunition, a dragon pistol uses a bullet or group of pellets and a single dose of black powder as ammunition.
Cost: 1000 gp, Damage: 1d6, Range: 20ft(scatter), Capacity: 1, Lbs.: 3 (Misfire Natural 1-2)

Two handed range weapons

Blunderbuss – This weapon fires pellets or a bullet from its trumpet-shaped barrel, making it an effective fowling weapon or close-fighting personal defense weapon. The blunderbuss fires in a 15-foot cone when firing pellets, and has a 20-foot range increment when firing a bullet. A blunderbuss uses a bullet or pellets and a single dose of black powder as ammunition.
Cost: 2000 gp, Damage: 1d10, Range: 20 ft/Special(scatter), Capacity: 1, Lbs.: 8 (Misfire Natural 1-2)

Musket – This long-barreled firearm has a much greater range than a pistol. A musket uses either a bullet and a single dose of black powder as its ammunition.
Cost: 1500 gp, Damage: 1d12, Range: 40 ft, Capacity: 1, Lbs.: 9 (Misfire Natural 1-2)

Double Barrell Musket – This musket has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be shot independently as a separate action, or both can be fired at once as the same attack. If both barrels are fired at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the gun becomes wildly inaccurate, taking disadvantage. Each barrel of a double-barreled musket uses either a bullet and a single dose of black powder as ammunition.
Cost: 2500 gp, Damage: 1d12, Range: 40 ft, Capacity: 2, Lbs.: 11 (Misfire Natural 1-3)

Firearms gear**

Black Powder – Black powder is the key explosive component within a firearm that enables it to function, but in larger amounts this alchemical material can be quite destructive on its own as well. A single dose of black powder is enough to power a single shot from most one-handed and two-handed firearms, while 10 doses are required to fire a cannon. Black powder is often stored and transported in kegs (which hold 100 doses), but in this quantity the powder itself becomes dangerous. Exposure to fire, electricity, or a misfire explosion causes black powder to explode—a single keg that explodes in this manner deals 5d6 points of fire damage to anyone within a 20-foot burst (DC 15 Reflex half ). Storing black powder in a powder horn protects the powder from explosion.
Cost: (Dose) 10 gp, (Keg) 1000 gp, lbs.: 5

Firearm Bullet – The ammunition of most one-handed and two-handed firearms, firearm bullets typically take the form of small balls of lead or some other metal.
Cost: (1) 1gp, (30) 30 gp, Lbs.: 1/2

Powder horn – Typically crafted from animal horn, but increasingly crafted from metal in a wide variety of shapes, a powder horn can hold up to 10 doses of black powder. A powder horn protects black powder stored within in it from exposure to fire, electricity, firearm misfires, and water.
Cost: 3 gp, Lbs.: 2

Special: Guns have advantage on attack rolls when the target is within half the normal range.

Bayonet Cost: 5 gp Dmg: 1d6 piercing Weight: 1 lb Properties: special

Special: It is a Use an Object action to attach a bayonet to or remove from a musket. Because bayonets are designed to be used while attached to a musket, it counts as an improvised weapon that does 1d4 piercing damage if used by itself.

Feat: Gunslinger
Thanks to extensive practice with guns, you gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity by 1 to a maximum of 20.
- Being within 5 ft of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
- When you use the Attack action & attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a loaded pistol you are holding.